Clovis salon robbed Friday

CLOVIS — First he drew the curtains, then he drew the gun.

That’s when Sandra Reyna knew the masked man who walked into her salon Friday afternoon was there for money, not a hair appointment.

“I thought somebody was joking with me at first,” she told The News. “I said, ‘Come on, get out.’”

Reyna has run the business adjoining her home in northwest Clovis four days a week for about 10 years and never had any issues. That’s until last week anyway, when she was seeing to a client and a young man entered and locked the door behind him. He concealed his face with a tan cloth but was otherwise head to toe in black with a coat and a hoodie.

If it were summer and he were wearing fewer layers, Reyna said, she might have gotten creative with her shears or a curling iron. Since that wasn’t the case, she and her client followed instructions, as did the mother-daughter customers who came to the door as the robbery was in progress. They got on the floor and removed their cell phones while the suspect held his gun to Reyna’s neck, she said. She tried to distract him into entering the back yard, where she could lock the door behind him, but he kept a foot inside the business.

“I was talking to him like I would talk to one of my kids,” she said.

Reyna was relieved, at least, that her 7-year old granddaughter was out sick that day since she normally came to the salon after school.

All told the suspect only took the cash he could find, leaving behind purses and debit cards, Reyna said. She called police immediately afterward, around 3:30 p.m., and they were on scene in numbers. During their first day of investigation they turned up a 9mm bullet, said Reyna, though no shots were fired. Cell phones the man had confiscated during the robbery were recovered.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry I’m doing this, but I’m going through a hard time. But I’m going to make it big someday and I’m going to repay you,’” Reyna said of the suspect.

Police Capt. Roman Romero said the detective division is handling the investigation, but as of Tuesday morning there were no charges or arrests made.

Reyna said she didn’t have a gun or surveillance system in her salon but would be adding both soon.